After allowing our daughter’s hair to grow past her waist, my wife and I decided that it was time for my daughter’s first haircut.

We expected it to go poorly. Our daughter is a slow-to-warm-up child who does not embrace change and tends to avoid new experiences whenever possible. The idea that a stranger would be cutting off pieces of her hair was a concept that we did not think would sit well with Clara.

To be honest, I was dreading this day. If it were up to me, I would’ve allowed Clara to look like Cousin It before taking her to the hair salon.

Thankfully, my wife did some research and found a hair salon that specialized in children’s haircuts, and the process was shockingly easy.

In truth, it was fun.

The hairdresser knew exactly what to do to put Clara at ease and allow her to enjoy the experience without fear or anxiety. She was a true expert and professional when it came to cutting children’s hair, and in the end, Clara had as much fun as my wife and me.

If only you could hire a professional for every potentially difficult moment of a child’s life.

A professional time out assigner.

A professional dinnertime nutritionist.

A professional potty trainer.

This last one would be especially valuable in the case of my daughter, who has yet to express a willingness or a readiness to be trained to use the potty. I recently offered someone $2,500 if they would train our daughter to use the potty, and I thought it would have been a bargain.

My wife thought my offer was high and said that $1,500 would have been more appropriate.

Either way, you can see how desperate we’ve become.

And we don’t want to hear that you can’t train a toddler to use the potty until she is ready or that when she is ready, it will happen almost overnight. None of these possibly true statements make us feel better right now, and that is all that counts.